Church in central Minnesota destroyed by Tuesday night fire

Provided by Verndale Family Life ChurchFire left little more than the shell of Verndale Family Life Church standing in the Wadena County city of about 600. This view is of the sanctuary, from the back.

A church in the central Minnesota city of Verndale and virtually all of its contents were scorched in a fire, the senior pastor said Wednesday.

Verndale Family Life Church "was ravaged by fire" at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, and firefighters needed three hours to douse the flames, senior pastor Amos Self said in a notice on the church's Facebook page.

No one was hurt by the blaze on the north side of town. There is no immediate word on what started the fire, but Self said late Wednesday morning that the initial suspicion is on some sort of electrical problem.

"Everything is gone," Self said, "filing cabinets, computers, the sound system" and all of the instruments. The fire "melted the TVs right off the wall," he said. "It's all toast."

Fire Chief Don Weniger said the bulk of the fire damage was on the main level, where the blaze started, with substantial smoke and water damage in the basement.

Self wrote in his Facebook post that a prayer gathering was scheduled for outside the building's charred shell at 6 p.m. Wednesday, adding, "Our building may be struck down, but the Spirit is not destroyed. Even when things seem bad, God is still good!"